The creation of KLYMAXX Bio Journey click
An American recording artist, producer, composer, musician, entertainer, and the original creator and founder of the Pop/R&B all-girl band 'KLYMAXX'. In a career spanning almost 36 years, she remains relevant. Being the maverick that she is, Cooper sets out at an early age to conquer her dream of an all-girl band.
Bernadette Cooper the founder of Klymaxx, created the group that made history as the first all-female R&B, funk, and pop band in which every female member played an instrument. Klymaxx collectively holds the distinction of being the ONLY all-female R&B/Pop band to go Platinum to this day.
Describing herself as a 'Diseuse'. A 'Diseuse' is a female entertainer who performs dramatic monologues. Bernadette has made this a popular art form in the Pop/ R&B world. Like Madonna, she can be sexy and funny at the same time. Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA, at the age of 12, She taught herself how to play the drums and began playing the drums in church.
Singer, songwriter, and producer, Bernadette Cooper has never been anything like the women the Beach Boys harmonized about on their sunshine soundtracks, she is still a California girl. Raised in Inglewood and in Compton, the “hood” that blessed us with both Barry White and N.W.A.
Whether singing Aretha Franklin songs at the show & tell in the first grade, listening to Sly Stone on the radio, or admiring the drums on Isaac Hayes records, she knew early that music would be her life.
Cooper, subsequently graduated from Inglewood High school where she earned a scholarship to El Camino College. While attending college, her vision of forming an all-girl band remained. Bernadette majored in Law at El Camino college, but quit after one year, after surrendering to her passion.
She then began pursuing her love of music.
So...Ms. Cooper came up with a name she thought would be exciting and would capture attention and then changed the spelling so it would be the group's own entity. Through magazine ads, auditions, word of mouth, and interviewing many girls, the band came to fruition.
"I know I was looking Good" with these six words, on the 1984 hit single “The Men All Pause,” Bernadette Cooper and Klymaxx changed the face and sound of music. The group that the Inglewood, California native created went on to become the most successful all-female soul/pop/funk band of all time.
Bernadette Cooper is cooler than you. She's also cooler than me, but that verdict is still pending. Before Beyonce failed, tried to bring out the "Sasha Fierce", there was someone who didn't need the word in her name, her actions spoke much louder.
Bernadette is a visionary who has the rare ability to see around the corner even if a Mack truck is obstructing her view. Throughout her career, she has been instrumental in finding, developing, and signing many artists including John B, Madame X, and Klymaxx
MADAME X
Bernadette formed The trio called Madame X. in 1988. Madame X consisted of Los Angeles-based vocalists Iris Parker, Valerie Victoria and Alisa Randolph. It was producer/songwriter/musician Bernadette Cooper, who came up with the Madame X concept, the girls as a unit decided upon the name, she hand-picked its members, and wrote and produced the songs.
Madame X was a conception of mine and I mentioned it to my attorney Ron Sweeney,” Cooper says. “He mentioned it to Sylvia Rhone and she signed the concept Atlantic Records prior to finding the girls. With a deal in place, I began searching and auditioning girls.” Eventually, she discovered a trio of talented singers (Alisa Randolph, Iris Parker, and Valerie Victor) at various locales throughout the Los Angeles. Iris worked at a clothing store that Cooper frequented, Valerie was found in Popeye’s buying chicken dinner and Alisa was the last chosen from an audition at the Solar Building.
Cooper, with a little help from her friends, engineer Gerry Brown, musicians/arrangers Cornelius Mims and Mike Hightower, keyboardist Amp Fiddler and singer Teena Marie, created a stunning musical foundation for the vocalists to build upon. “Gerry and I crafted that project like it was the Mona Lisa,” Cooper says. “I would bounce most of my ideas off of him and he was brutally honest with me. I wasn’t searching for a hit, I just wanted the project to be pure. I let the girls do all of their own vocals and the result was the creation of a new sound and group.
Recording the majority of the project out of Studio Masters, an LA spot where many Solar artists worked, she and Gerry began their process. “Madame X was a labor of love for both of us,” Brown says. “Bern is funky as hell, and the way she dealt with the musicians, they knew they had to bring it. Bern knows what she’s doing and she doesn’t sacrifice her soul. At all times, she is her own person.” With Bernadette having blossomed as a producer, there was an aura adventurism to the music of Madame X that pushed beyond the formula of the usual ‘80s R&B fare. “Alisa was from New Orleans and she sang beautifully,” Iris says of her group-mate who died from breast cancer in 2005.
DRAMA ACCORDING TO BERNADETTE COOPER
1989 ”At this point, Solar record, now constellation records had merged with MCA records. MCA A&R Head, Louil Silas Jr approached Bernadette Cooper with a record contract. In 1990, she signed with MCA Records. While working on Madame X, Cooper, was also working on her debut Album 'Drama According To Bernadette Cooper'. Cooper was famous for booking out two rooms in a studio with two separate engineers and simultaneously producing projects. Drama According to Bernadette Cooper was a project that included such artist and entertainers as unaccredited Lenny Kravitz as well as her good friend Teena Marie, Chuckii Booker, John Patitucci and Rob Bacon, the Waters and a host of other performers.
With some completed material and a lot of ideas, Cooper went the familiar ground of Studio Masters. “That’s where lots of the SOLAR acts worked; I had a relationship with them and I was used to the place.” It was also the spot where Funkadelic, Bootsy’s Rubber Band, and Diana Ross recorded. Cooper recruited engineer Gerry Brown, who also worked with her on Madame X.
According to the LA times,"Cooper's sense of humor may be cartoon-like, but her musical instincts are real-life sophisticated, and there's no other black female singer-songwriter-producer you can compare her to. If anything, she comes across as the audacious, self-absorbed female equivalent of Morris Day. Designed to be high-concept, this album is lacking in the drama department, save for "The Agency Sent Me," on which a harried social worker, frustrated by the court system and bureaucratic red tape, finds herself responding to a battered child who tells her I was born to be fierce, Born to be happy, Born to be free, Are you from the agency? Lady, would you help me? That cut is a poignant surprise from someone you don't associate with such serious concerns, and it's about as high-minded as Cooper gets. Actually, she's most convincing on "I Look Good," the best piece of self-promoting comedic-funk since Day and the Time cut "Cool" back in 1982. That track alone encapsulates everything you need to know about Cooper and her wonderfully wacky sense of musical invention.
In the spring of 1990, after handing in Drama, things began changing at MCA. Louil Silas left to start his own label and his replacement Ernest Singleton seemed indifferent to Cooper’s project. Though it was decided that the first single would be the campy funk of “I Look Good,” a track that recalled the retro-pop goofiness of Cab Calloway by way of Kid Creole and the Coconuts, not much was done in the way of promotion. “We shot a video, but at the same time, Ernie, was telling me he didn’t believe in videos,” Cooper says. “I think ‘I Look Good’ was a good record, but we were going into the hip-hop era and the sound of music was changing. It was more about rap and Teddy Riley’s new jack swing sound. What I was creating was different, a little more sophisticated.
With the single, MCA decided that the music wasn’t “Black enough,” switching her abruptly to the alternative division. “The alternative people had no idea what to do with me, so I just got caught-up in a little ball of confusion.” After releasing the second single “Stupid,” about a woman so sprung that she buys her man a Ferrari while putting his name on her checking account, the record was virtually ignored within the company and soon faded to black. Her control over the project and her vision bring to mind Michael Jackson and Prince, who also clearly influenced her urban pop style.
1995, Drama According to Bernadette Cooper was and still is, a critically acclaimed album. Soon after she was dropped from MCA she decided to take a move to New York and pursue her love of music and fashion.
After a life in show business, living in the hills of Los Angeles, where Cooper claims to never have known her neighbors, the songwriter moved to Manhattan.
Working for Atlantic Records, Cooper moved into a spacious studio in Battery Park but never fell in love with life in the big city. To her, Battery Park was as dull as new clothing. "They bore me," said Cooper, who has partied with Lenny Kravitz "My friends were telling me, 'You should come to Downtown Jersey City, It's really cool.' " Cooper moved to the city, felt an affinity for the area and leased a brownstone in the Vanvorst park area. The building was an old art museum that Cooper, a year later turned into one of the funkiest vintage clothing boutiques in the city. Her residence was upstairs from her store. Living above the store enables her to keep writing songs and to open the store each afternoon. Cooper will spend the morning and afternoon working on hammering out songs for some of the biggest record labels in the business. When her work is done for the day, she opens the doors to the store downstairs. Cooper said that she and her hand-picked helpers abroad, pick out all of the clothes for the store
The display of the clothing is aesthetically important and she sometimes changes the window dressings two times a day. "I buy what turns me on," Cooper said. "This is just another reflection of me. It's like I'm opening up my closets for everyone." Most of the clothing comes from estate sales, where possessions like furniture and clothing are awarded to bidders. "I'm always pushing past people who are looking at furniture so I can get into the closets," Cooper said. Garage sales are also a goldmine for Cooper, who will frequent Beverly Hills for used clothes. "They throw out some really great stuff," she said. Comparing the downtown area of the city to the West Village in New York, Cooper sees big things for the future here. "I think this area is up-and-coming," she said. "There's something about the vibe here.
TOURING
KLYMAXX FEATURING BERNADETTE COOPER: THE BAND
2015-2022, Getting back to her roots, the spontaneity of live music, and reclaiming what she started in the beginning. Cooper is currently on tour with her revised version of Klymaxx Featuring, Bernadette Cooper (the band). Under the revamped banner, Real Divas Never Die 2016. "The banner is powerful," Cooper says. "It's letting women know that you are fly forever."
Staying true to the court's decision. The court's decision was that the name can be used by any original member, however, to not mislead the public, the member's name must be featured. Cooper is currently opening for Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly.
KLYMAXX presents BERNADETTE COOPER: The Diva Show
2012-2022, Bernadette created her new touring concept, Klymaxx Presents Bernadette Cooper 'Diva & A Turntable'. KLYMAXX Presents Bernadette Cooper's "The Diva Show personifies the KLYMAXX movement & Bernadette Cooper on another level. This show gives you the hits from Klymaxx, Bernadette Cooper, Madame X, and Bette Midler, along with the hits she composed and produced for others. “I desire to the keep the revolutionary, sexy girl thing going on while keeping my music alive,” she says., “But I'm constantly changing the show. What you see today may not be what you see tomorrow."
Now, the ever-evolving Bernadette unveils her latest musical adventure. A component of “The Diva Show” is a show within a show, during which Bernadette presents a musical experience that was usually high energy, now intimate. The stage show features fan favorites, “I Look Good (An Interview with Bernadette Cooper,)" “The Men All Pause,” “Divas Need Love Too,” “The Underground," “Sexy,” “Just That Type of Girl,” “Meeting in the Ladies Room,” and more
“The dynamic, funky presentation satiates longtime fans of the band, while Bernadette reaches out to a new demographic that spans generations and musical tastes.
Regarding her exciting new live undertaking, Cooper says, “I have given years, time, and love to creating KLYMAXX and its brand. Now it's time to be my epic self without compromise. In that sense, KLYMAXX is the theater and Bernadette Cooper is the act.
.” For three or four years now I’ve wanted to do a show, kind of like Bette Midler on steroids — or acid,” explains Cooper. In Klymaxx presents Bernadette Cooper: The Diva Show, Cooper gets into character as a diva with two incredibly talented singers whom she teasingly calls ”young bitches. and a band of male and female musicians” Washington also doubles as a DJ on the titular turntable when needed.
For the amusing show, Cooper and company perform ”I Look Good” as well as other songs you no doubt know from Cooper’s repertoire. The focus is chiefly on her hit-making career as the founder and leader of the ’80s-era all-girl group Klymaxx — think sassy funk jams ”Meeting In The Ladies Room” and ”The Men All Pause,” or the R&B ballad ”I Miss You.” The band was slightly ahead of its time in the way that Cooper talked, even lightly rapped, as much as she actually sang her lyrics.
A native of Los Angeles, Cooper is ”completely 100 percent devoted to music” after getting sidetracked by other business and personal pursuits. She intends to bolster her review by continuing to tweak its content as well as adding technology to allow for graphical projections. She also wants to make sure the show finds its natural gay audience. At least during a recent version of the show in New York, Cooper included a number criticizing a closeted ”Down-Low” subculture, and she offered a pro-marriage-equality shout-out to our now ”DOMA-free” country because I love to serve the fabulous energy.
Last Diva On Earth Episode 1: Planet Sexy
2015, Bernadette released her new project. The album reads like a soundtrack to a movie. A fit and in fine form Cooper went on the road with “Klymaxx Presents Bernadette Cooper: A Diva and a Turntable,” which garnered rave reviews. And now, nearly two decades after her last project 'Drama According To Bernadette Cooper,' Cooper recently released “Last Diva on Earth Episode 1: Planet Sexy,” which she describes as “an introspective, comedic look at the earth, love and the search for happiness.” This is the first chapter of two adapted from her life's musical manifesto. Her recent Essence Magazine article says it all... Fierce, Fabulous & Funky: Klymaxx Founder Bernadette Cooper Is Ready to Reclaim the Spotlight.
While the ‘90s, found Cooper writing and producing for acts as diverse as her own creation, Madame X, and pop princess Paula Abdul, it wasn’t until 2005 Bands Reunited special on VH1 that she began to entertain the concept of recording and performing with Klymaxx again. Thus, the arrival after two decades of her second solo set, Last Diva on Earth, Episode 1: Planet Sexy, is a surprising treat. Retaining the attitudinal essence of her earlier work, the lighthearted yet thoughtful collection is an enjoyable reminder of the fun and individuality that we should all try to celebrate in our everyday lives
Describing herself as a diseuse A Diva who performs monologues, for Last Diva, Cooper does indeed incorporate a generous helping of spoken word into her new recordings The smoothly executed combination makes for a creative melodic atmosphere, making up for what she lacks in vocal power with a palette of moody phrasing and understated textures. It’s especially effective on the slow-grooving “Damn, I Wish” and the campy title cut. These two numbers also point to the contrast of fun and seriousness that resonates throughout the album. Whereas “Damn” explores the Pandora’s Box of a destructive romance, “Last Diva” puts a superhero spin on being oneself and loving it.
One of the most memorable moments on Last Diva on Earth comes via the feel-good number, “Fashion Girl,” which juxtaposes a breezy, hip-hop-spiced beat pattern with carefree lyrics about a relaxing weekend spent “rocking the runway hair, roaming the neighborhood, strolling the boulevard.” The good-time feel is taken up a notch via several dance floor-driven remixes with added dialogue and harmonic variations On the other side of the spectrum, Cooper delves into a passion for a commitment on the offbeat “Born a Sinner,” which begins with an otherworldly background mood before transitioning into a distinctive up-tempo romp. “I just came to earth/I just came to bring you, love…to kick it with you, to do absolutely nothing with you…I’m here, I came to bring you love/To hide from the rest of the world…” So begins the poetry segment of the cut. “Since I love you the way I love you/Does it mean I was born a sinner?” she sings delicately once the beat kicks in. “If I could lay in your arms 24 hours a day/The neighbors would call me a sinner…I don’t care, baby, I surrender.
When it comes to both the messages she conveys and the musical platforms she uses to do so, Cooper retains an unaffected authenticity through the duration of Last Diva on Earth. She has alluded to her music as “not R&B, not Pop, not Hip-Hop,” but “Diva,” in the broad sense of being who she is without consideration for categorization—and carrying the results out with unabashed confidence. Longtime fans of Klymaxx and younger listeners searching for a refreshing sonic demonstration of individuality alike will find a familiar, yet never formulaic, menu of colorful flavors and story lines within.
Klymaxx United States Trademark Decision (Google)
2012, The KLYMAXX Trademark issue was settled. The court's decision was that the name can be used by any original member, however, to not mislead the public, the member's name must be featured. the record is in evidence regarding which, if any, of the parties, has or had the right to control the parties’ band(s) or any band’s use of the KLYMAXX mark; There were procedural complications in the opposition too; at some point applicant Irby disappeared, and so while Cooley and Cooper agreed on abandoning the application, the application couldn’t be abandoned because Irby was on the application as joint owner and hadn’t formally agreed. (Demonstrating once again, should you have had any doubt, that joint ownership by individuals is a bad, bad idea
"It all began while we are on hiatus, Cooper says, One of the members of the group continued to tour with the band’s name and we asked her to stop. Klymaxx was my vision. I created the concept. We did get back together and we did a tour for a while. If you’re an original member of the band you can use “Klymaxx Featuring…” But realistically, our time was up as a unit."
I am touring as “Klymaxx Featuring Bernadette Cooper, Cooper states, "I’m looking forward to letting go and enjoying my journey."If you are able to catch any of the girls' versions of Klymaxx, don't get caught up in the drama, just enjoy the music- "The original members of Klymaxx have not toured in concert since the 80s. Lynn, Robbin, Lorena, Cheryl, Joyce, and I. Some of the members respectfully, choose not to tour. The trademark ruling has granted us the right to tour, Individually, under the Klymaxx banner with the member's name being featured. During the trademark settlement, Cooley and I corresponded via our attorneys on this. It's not pretty, however, very common now. I say, whichever version of Klymaxx is touring... Just go and support us. For me, It's the legacy, the music, my vision, and the love of performing that is being kept alive. Collectively, we should be honored"
Klymaxx UK TRADEMARK #UK0003406621
2019, Bernadette Cooper secured the KLYMAXX UK trademark